I never heard of Gaius Mucius Scaevola till I read his name in Will Durant’s The Story of Philosophy which impressively is copyrighted 1926 through 1943. And I didn’t know of Durant’s connection to the famed Butcher of Babies, Margaret Sanger until I read about it in George Grant’s 1992 Grand Illusions – The Legacy of Planned Parenthood.
But that last connection is an aside. The Story of Philosophy was to be my last book to read about philosophy in one final attempt to understand it. I have since read one more which put everything into perspective. More on that in a future blog. In any event Will Durant mentioned Gaius Mucius Scaevola. It was with absolutely no introduction or explanation. I took this as yet more evidence of how poor a college education I had already in the 70s. I think with the advent of all these online colleges that will give you up to 120 credit hours for “life experience” or a Master Degree in one year that we are truly entering the Dark Ages of college education.
Here is the entry for Scaevola from kids.britannica.com. While somewhat shamed am I that I had to resort to the internet to find out who this Gaius was, I was impressed with this site. You could view the article under the tabs Kids, Students, or Scholars. I may be wrong, my understanding/misunderstanding of all things internet proceeds me, but I think this is superior to Wiki anything. Here’s the entry from that site:
“Gaius Mucius Scaevola was a legendary Roman hero of the 6th century bc. According to the legend, Mucius volunteered to assassinate the Etruscan king Lars Porsena, who was besieging Rome. However, Mucius killed Porsena’s attendant by mistake. The Etruscans captured Mucius and brought him before the royal tribunal. Mucius declared that he was one of 300 noble youths who had sworn to take the king’s life. He demonstrated his courage to his captors by thrusting his right hand into a blazing fire and holding it there until it burned away. Deeply impressed and fearing another attempt on his life, Porsena ordered Mucius to be freed and made peace with the Romans before withdrawing his forces. According to the story, Mucius was rewarded with a grant of land and given the name Scaevola, meaning ‘left-handed.’ The legend may have arisen to explain the origin of Rome’s famed Scaevola family of law scholars”
You see what I mean about Roman verses American history? Isn’t this a much better story than George Washington standing there with the felled cherry tree proclaiming, “I cannot tell a lie”? But it certainly pales in comparison to the three men in the fiery furnace who were willing not just to have their right hands thrust into fire but their whole bodies trussed up like a holiday goose and thrown into a furnace.
If I were still in the parish, I would take a poll of the Bible class to find out how many of them have ever heard of this most famous truth-teller of Rome. Then again when I was still in the parish 20 years ago or so in an Adult Instruction Class with several college students, I was surprised how few of them had heard of George Washington’s cherry tree and declaration of being a truth-teller.
Perhaps if our history was more entertaining or better yet true, like Biblical history, people would be induced to study it more. Here I’d be lying if I told you that would be true. The majority of lay people think of Bible Class as an extra. It is similar to the Cajun’s lagniappe, but Cajun’s never use that word in the sense of not necessary but only as bonus.
Who regards a bonus as anything but a positive? It’s the distinction between “get to” and “have to”. Now the Old Adam thinks the things of faith are always a “have to”, but it’s a warning sign when those thoughts are not rebuked by the New Man who knows the Means of Grace are all a bonus to lost and condemned creatures like us.
