A Bird in the Hand is Worth...
The Roman Emperor Honorius, so the story goes, had more on his mind than the impending sack of one of Europe’s iconic cities.
410
Roman Empire 27 BC - AD 1453
The Roman Emperor Honorius, so the story goes, had more on his mind than the impending sack of one of Europe’s iconic cities.
410
Roman Empire 27 BC - AD 1453
After the Roman Empire split into East and West, Constantinople’s glories in the East contrasted sharply with Rome’s growing vulnerability, and in 410, Alaric the Goth beseiged the former capital.
translated from the Greek
THEY opened the gates, and let Alaric and his army come and go as they pleased; and after plundering the whole city and killing most of the people of Rome, the invaders moved on.
It is said that at that time the Emperor Honorius, in Ravenna, received a message from one of his eunuchs, evidently in charge of the poultry, telling him that it was all over for Rome.
Honorius cried out, ‘And yet, just minutes ago he was eating out of my hands!’, referring to an exceptionally large cockerel which he kept, named ‘Rome’.
Realising that he had been misunderstood, his servant explained that it was all over for the city of Rome, which had fallen to Alaric.
At that, Honorius heaved a sigh of relief. “My dear fellow” he said, “there I was, thinking my bird Rome was dead!”
They say the Emperor was always uttering nonsense of that sort.
translated from the Greek
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What message did his servant mean to bring to Honorius?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
A servant brought news of the fall of Rome. The Emperor had a cockerel named Rome. He thought the cockerel was dead.