Note 61 — CHAP. X.
Reading edition
... Tum Præpositus multum scandalizans, & iracundiæ furore succensus, eisdem Carpentariis disciplinam corporis imponi jussit.
Aulus Gellius, in his Noctes Atticæ, relates a fact which bears much resemblance to the above; though, indeed, much greater Men were concerned in it, than the Prior of a Convent, and Carpenters: the one was a Roman Consul, and the other, the Engineer of a Town, allied to the Republick.
The name of the Consul in question was P. Crassus, who must not, however, be mistaken for the celebrated M. Crassus, the partner in power with Pompey and Cæsar; though both lived in the same times. This Consul P. Crassus, having been intrusted with the conduct of the war that was then carrying on in Asia, laid siege to the Town of Leucas; and wanting a strong beam of oak to make a battering-ram, he recollected he had lately seen at Elæa, a Town allied to the Romans, just such a piece of timber as he wished to have: he therefore wrote to the Magistrates of that place, to request them to send it to him. The Magistrates accordingly directed their Engineer to convey the beam to Crassus; but as there was another in the yards belonging to the Town, which, the Engineer thought, would be fitter for the use Crassus wanted to put it to, he made choice of the latter, and conveyed it to the Roman camp. However, the Engineer had been mistaken in his calculations, and the beam unfortunately proved too small; which the Consul did no sooner perceive, and that his orders had been neglected, than, like the above-mentioned Prior, he fell into a passion, and ordered the Engineer to be stript, and soundly lashed.
Some apology, however, may be made in favour of the action of the Roman Consul. As himself observed upon the spot, the whole business of war would be at an end, if those whose duty it is to obey, were permitted to canvass the orders which they receive, and to set aside what part they please: besides that an allowance should be made for Men of a military life, and who are invested with military command; and some little indulgence, I think, ought to be shewn them, when they happen to inflict flagellations somewhat cavalierly. But as to the above holy Prior, who had made so many vows of obedience, humility, forbearance, and the like, it is not, indeed, quite so easy a talk to excuse him: I shall not, therefore, undertake it; and I will content myself with observing, how advantageous it would have been both for the above Engineer and Carpenters, in the perplexing situations in which they were respectively placed, to have possessed a power of the same kind as that which the Golden Legend (or perhaps some other Book of equal merit) supposes Jesus Christ to have exerted on a similar occasion. Joseph, as it is related, who had the care of the infant Jesus trusted to him, tried to bring him up to his own trade of a Carpenter; and one day, finding that the Boy had sawed a piece of wood shorter than the measure he had prescribed, he ran up to him, full of anger, with a stick raised in his hand, in order to chastise him; but the arch apprentice, who was beginning to be conscious of his power of working miracles, on a sudden exerted it, and lengthened the piece of wood to its proper size.